This week’s weird movie news…

Updated on August 3, 2005 By Ken Begg 5 Comments

According to the IMDB, Robert Altman (the sort of filmmaker who is mentioned in terms of movies he made over three decades ago; “Altman, the director of M*A*S*H and Nashville, is…”) is making a film based on Garrison’s Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion radio show. It will star Lindsey Lohan, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Lily Tomlin, Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones Keillor himself. Realizing this might not be a huge urban hit*, Altman cannily has commented that he hopes it will draw much the same audience as “Mel Gibson’s Jesus picture.”

Yes, it sounds like he has that market demographic zeroed in on.

[*Untrue, actually, since his best bet is with upper middle class urban liberals, the sort of people who listen to NPR and the Prairie Home Companion in the first place.]
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  • Garrison Keillor has been pretty hostile to religion, lately. I can’t imagine him drawing the same audience (people or numbers) as Gibson’s film.

    I think what what Altman really wants is the box office take that Mel Gibson got.

  • Yes, but he clearly has no idea how to get it.

  • Remember that one Simpsons episode where the family is watching Keillor (or a reasonable facsimile) drone on and on during a PBS pledge drive, and Homer’s reaction is to pound on the TV and yell “Be more funny!”?

  • Anonymous

    I always found NPR’s take on American folk culture patronizing.

    Here’s a question: If programs like PHC are commercially viable enough to warrant motion picture treatment, why are American taxpayers still being asked to subsidize them (via the NEA)?

  • If programs like PHC are commercially viable enough to warrant motion picture treatment, why are American taxpayers still being asked to subsidize them (via the NEA)?

    Why, asking such a question is a sure sign that you are PURE EVIL!

    8-)